Tourists on Monday visit Tiananmen Square, which is shrouded with heavy smog. Pollution levels remained high just 11 days before the Olympics. The Chinese capital could ban 90 percent of private cars from its roads and close more factories in a last-ditch bid to clear smoggy skies for the Olympics, state media reported. (Andrew Wong/Getty Images)

John Henderson: Yangshuo, China — I was the first member of the Denver Post Olympics team, a threat to no one in any relay but the four-man chug-off, to arrive in Beijing. In fact, I may have been one of the first American reporters. I left Thursday, and when I arrived it looked like the Beijing that I had imagined all these decades. I walked out of the terminal and dawn was just enveloping the city. Beijing appeared masked in a mysterious morning fog. A misty, gray cloak had covered a city that dates back to Genghis Khan 800 years ago.

I kept looking for a large group of elderly Chinese practicing tai-chi, their slow, fluid movements a human poetry against a backdrop of ancient China. I listened for twangy Chinese music and lotus flowers blooming on the sidewalk. Then I peered closer. The silver mist didn’t look so romantic anymore. No wonder. It wasn’t fog.

It was smog.

Folks, Beijing’s air is as filthy as you’ve heard. I arrived 13 days before the opening ceremony. It’s about the time the government started limiting car usage and stopped street construction just so you can walk a few blocks without hacking up your esophagus. Looking at the air quality, Beijing would have to use rickshaws for the next 20 years to clean it up.